Colorants are widely used in many applications to provide useful and aesthetic appearance to articles and printed images. Many commonly known colorants include a dye which is covalently attached via copolymerization to a polymer. Copolymerization is generally conducted at high temperatures, therefore requiring the copolymerized dyes to have high thermal stability. There is a need for improved methods to produce colorants containing dyes. The compounds, compositions, and methods disclosed herein address these and other needs.